AHC: Save the hats!
- Thread starter iddt3
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I hear it was started by Kennedy's inauguration which was the first one in American history where a president decided to forgo his hat for such a formal occasion. Since ot was televised and seen by millions of people, that was instrumental in changing mindsets to reflect the superfluousness of hats even in formal circumstances.
What I remeber hearing on decline of hats is it's similar to the decline of the mustache and physlogical change brough on by WWII, after the war (this from a British perspective) it left physlgical change that people wanted to be different from their parents and one things they associated with them was a hat and moustache so hats and moustches begin to decline and so by the mid 60's it was quite rare sight to see a man in a hat.Moustache's and Hats was seen again has part of old order (Chamberlain) and so their use declines once younger men begin to become leading figures in political and social life,( I think MacMillan was last PM to have moustache and wear a hat, I could be wrong)
Hats could be used as signs of social status ,at least from a British perspective, So top hats for the upper classes ,bowler hats for upper middle class 'gentlemen' ,trilbys for middle class and flat caps for the working class .This is a general rule and there are exceptions
So by the supposidly egalitarian 1960's hats were seen as an outward sign of a backward looking individual.
So to remove the abhorance of hats all you need do is remove the swinging '60s
So by the supposidly egalitarian 1960's hats were seen as an outward sign of a backward looking individual.
So to remove the abhorance of hats all you need do is remove the swinging '60s
A god part of it is that in a large chunk of the country hats are more effort than they're worth.
I think a real big part of it to was that with the advent of modern advertising and mass-production fashion was able to become far more diverse and spread more as opposed top before then when clothes were more expensive and generally made in similar moulds.
I think a real big part of it to was that with the advent of modern advertising and mass-production fashion was able to become far more diverse and spread more as opposed top before then when clothes were more expensive and generally made in similar moulds.
John Fredrick Parker
Donor
A related question might be if hats had survived, what might they look like today? Would we have stuck with the fedoras, or have moved on to something else by now?
I imagine they must have been on decline before that, otherwise Kennedy wouldn't be allowed to do that. Perhaps the decline of hats was more influenced by ads by the hair gel industry or somesuch?
I would guess that modern hats in formal wear would be similar to the fedoras, because men's formal clothing hasn't changed much. However, when it comes to casual clothes, I would guess baseball caps would be the most common one, as they are IATL, but there'd be more diversity in them.
However, if hats remain essential in women's clothing, I imagine they would have a diverse array of newly-invented hats. The younger ones would probably prefer smaller hats to show off their hair, but with the decrease in women's clothing, perhaps it's inevitable that they lose their hats at some point.
Can't say about Britain, but the arrival of long hair for men reduced the popularity of hats considerably in the U.S. "Hat hair," that ridge pressed into the hair all around the head by a hat, was considered distinctly uncool in the 1960s and 1970s. So one way to keep hats popular is to keep short hair fashionable for men.
Save the hatting industry. Feed pigeons laxatives. I garantee you'd only need to be caught once to convince you to wear hats. Judging by the state of my car someones already feeding them to Sea Gulls.
i would suspect that in the UK at least we may have seen a continuation of the hat hegemony with job and class determining the hat you wore ...
the interesting thing would be into what 'class' of hat you would place new or changing jobs...
also if women still wore hats routinely would Nurses still wear their traditional working headgear ... and with the assumed conservatism in clothing this brings would Scrubs remain firmly behind the OR door ?
Keep suits a part of social wear.
Formal hats look stupid if you're not wearing a suit. If you look at pictures from the past, everyone wore a suit while out, even to something like a baseball game. If you wore a suit to a baseball game now, you'd probably get a lot of funny looks.
The way to keep hats is to keep suits for daily, informal wear.
Formal hats look stupid if you're not wearing a suit. If you look at pictures from the past, everyone wore a suit while out, even to something like a baseball game. If you wore a suit to a baseball game now, you'd probably get a lot of funny looks.
The way to keep hats is to keep suits for daily, informal wear.